Reflections on the Chinese model

Makes me reflect, at least. Since being asked to think about Sri Lanka-China relations recently, I’ve been paying attention to the ascendant Chinese model. Three days in Shanghai were meaningful in that sense. Here is a little piece I wrote while sitting in the Pudong International Airport, Shanghai. Naturally, it has some telecom content, but not all of it is about telecom.

This brings me to another aspect of the Chinese model that several Asian countries, including India and Indonesia, are trying to emulate these days. This is the imposition of national manufacturing requirements. It is a fact that much of the inputs for China’s telecom networks are manufactured in China which has a trade surplus in telecom equipment, unlike many Asian countries. It is also a fact that China’s government has for years imposed national manufacturing requirements. What is debatable is whether the latter was the cause of the former.